Spain Carpets

The Muslim presence in Spain, from the early eighth century, encouraged the widespread production of luxury textiles and the rise of a thriving carpet industry. The earliest references occur in an eleventh-century Latin poem and a twelfth-century Arabic geographical work, and mention the carpets of Chinchilla and Cuenca (Murcia) which are said to have been exported to all countries. Although Muslim control of Spain was reduced to the region around Granada, by the thirteenth century, Muslims (mudejars) who remained in the re-Christianized southeast maintained the tradition of carpet weaving. In Murcia several major centres gained renown (Letur, Leitor, and Alcaraz), and this industry seems to have reached its apogee during the fifteenth century with the production of large and brilliant carpets for Christian patrons. Indeed, commissions from the crown of Aragón and its aristocracy appear to have been responsible for its renaissance.

Spanish carpets were widely circulated in Europe and highly esteemed in Portugal, where they are recorded from at least the thirteenth century, in the inventories and accounts of King Diniz (r. 1279-1325). Their presence in significant numbers is confirmed by historical sources until the middle of the sixteenth century, and they are still referred to occasionally in later documents. Although no examples of Spanish carpets have survived in Portugal to the present day, the patterns and colours of these valued imports can be verified from painted representations of them. They first appear in Portuguese paintings dating from the beginning of the sixteenth century, and three major types are represented: those with 'star-on-octagon' patterns, local copies of imported classical Ottoman Turkish types, and carpets with more Europeanized Renaissance patterns.

The first Spanish type draws its inspiration from local artistic traditions (including Islamic), and frequently includes coats of arms of royal or noble families of Castile which date them to the second and third quarters of the fifteenth century. However, the representation of related carpets, without arms, as late as the 1530s in Portuguese art suggests a longer life for the pattern than previously thought. These carpets typically have repetitive field designs consisting of rows of small-scale geometric units (octagons, hexagons and diamonds) forming a lattice, which are enclosed in broad borders with designs based on kufic script (an angular type of Arabic calligraphy). They appear almost exclusively in Portuguese paintings of the Annunciation, Mass of Saint Gregory and Presentation in the Temple, by artists such as Francisco Henriques (Casa dos Patudos, Alpiarça) and Gregório Lopes (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon). The inclusion of Arabic script in the carpets shown in these paintings is not discordant with their Christian content and reflects the high esteem with which the written word was held, conferring dignity and prestige on the Virgin and the saints portrayed.

The second Spanish type consists of versions of various patterns seen in contemporary Turkish carpets imported into Europe from the middle of the fifteenth century. Typically the Spanish Mudejar weavers imitated the field patterns of the Turkish originals and their bright colours but used local designs for the borders. Use of the single-warp knot also distinguishes the Spanish pieces from their Turkish counterparts. The most popular pattern is based on the 'large-pattern Holbein' design in which the major unit of the pattern comprises a star within an octagon contained by a square. At least three different versions of these 'wheel' patterns (as they were called at the time) were manufactured in Spain suggesting the design was both fashionable and economical, while the insistence on border patterns with indigenous designs evokes an industry with a strong regional identity, unthreatened by foreign imports. Many examples of these 'wheel' carpets survive, ranging in size from a runner with a column of three squares to a carpet with six rows of three compartments. They are well represented in the collections of Portuguese royalty and aristocracy, and are depicted in several sixteenth-century paintings beginning in the 1530s, including, in addition to the usual range of scenes a painting of the Pentecost (Ermida da Nossa Senhora dos Remédios, Alfama, Lisbon).

The third type of Spanish carpet reflects the marked change in taste that occurred with the end of Muslim rule in Granada and the initial expulsion of Muslims (and Jews) from Spain in 1492. The large octagons of the 'Holbein' pattern evolved into Renaissance-style wreaths, while the geometric lattices give way to repeated designs based on Renaissance and Gothic interpretations of nature. These carpets appear only very occasionally in Portuguese painting (e.g. Gregório Lopes, Apparition of Christ to the Virgin, c. 1540, Museu de Setúbal), but their relative absence should not be interpreted as an indication of a decline in interest in Islamic carpets or of a change in attitude towards them. To the contrary, it reflects a positive shift in trade and taste which occurred with Portugal's expanding horizons and economy in the early sixteenth century and the arrival of other types of knotted-pile carpets from more distant lands.

Bibliography:
FERRER, José Sánchez, Alfombras antiguas de la Provincia de Albacete, Albacete, Instituto de Estudos Albacatenses, 1986. HALLETT, Jessica, "Tapetes orientais e ocidentais: intercâmbios peninsulares no século XVI", in O Largo Tempo do Renascimento: Arte, Propaganda e Poder, Vítor Serrão (ed.), Lisbon, Caleidoscópio, 2008, pp. 225-257. HALLETT, Jessica and Pereira, Teresa Pacheco (eds.), The Oriental Carpet in Portugal, carpets and paintings, 15th to 18th centuries, Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga/ Instituto dos Museus e da Conservação, exhibition catalogue, 2007. HALLETT, Jessica, "From Floor to Wall: An oriental carpet in a Portuguese mural painting of The Annunciation", in Out of the Stream: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Mural Painting, Luís Urbano Afonso and Vítor Serrão (eds.), Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, pp. 141-165. MACKIE, Louise W. "Two remarkable fifteenth-century carpets from Spain", Textile Museum Journal, IV.4, 1977, pp. 15-32. MACKIE, Louise, "Native and Foreign Influence in carpets woven in Spain during the 15th century", Hali, 2.2, 1979, pp. 88-97. TORRES, José Ferrandis, Exposición de Alfombras Antiguas Españolas, Madrid, Sociedad Española de Amigos del Arte, 1933.

Author: Jessica Hallett